Sustainable development in emergency context (Parallel Session)

Territorial planning in Chile is undoubtedly a young research field, currently under significant development. Consequently, in the last decades there has been an intense professional and academic debate around the following questions: How should our cities grow? and, how can this growth respond to the principles of urban sustainability? Various urban public policies have tried to answer these questions from different perspectives. However, these perspectives have failed to provide a comprehensive response to the social, political, economic and environmental dynamics of the country.

This is a transversal phenomenon in the territorial planning of Latin American countries. Nevertheless, Chile has a particular feature: The moments when most reflection occurred about how cities should grow – and related regulations developed – have followed natural disasters, specifically earthquakes.

The question that guides this session is: What experiences from today’s globalized world can contribute to Chilean challenge of achieving a sustainable development given the frequent emergency situations? In fact, given the frequency of with which emergencies occur in Chile, being prepared is particularly important. This involves considering prevention measures, states of emergency, and reconstruction processes.